A Slip of the Tongue
by Tinuviel Undomiel
Summary: Deleted scene to the episode When the Bough Breaks: Beckett talks to her father about Castle's possible departure and what he really means to her.


Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N: My first time with a Castle fic. It's a deleted scene for the episode When the Bough Breaks. I hope everyone likes it.

NOTE: Jim calls Beckett Katie throughout the story because that is what he called her in Sucker Punch. It's not a typo.

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A Slip of the Tongue

Jim Beckett didn't know what to expect when he got his daughter's voicemail message asking for them to meet at the diner. She had sounded upset, but not her normal way. Her voice had carried a heavy amount of anger with a trace of sadness and fear beneath it all. Jim hadn't heard that combination in Katie's voice often. She often tried to hide her emotions and did a good job of it most the time. However, there were those rare moments when she needed to vent out all of her frustrations. It used to be she would go to her mother. Now that task had fallen on him.

He ordered their usual: a sundae with caramel sauce and extra nuts to share. Then he quietly sipped coffee and waited. It didn't take long for Katie to walk through the door and for Jim to gawk at her in surprise. Instead of her usual inexpensive, but good quality slacks, blouse and jacket, she was wearing a designer blue dress that fell just above her knees and was a little too low cut for him to comfortable with on his daughter. However, he had to admit that she looked beautiful. With her hair teased lightly to make it look simple, but fancy, and jewelry bequeathed to her by Johanna sparkling around her throat and ears, it was easy to see why a man would write a book about her. For a moment Jim was taken back in time to when Katie was only eighteen and bubbling with excitement about going to prom. She may not have been eighteen anymore, but she was still very much his little girl.

Katie sat down across from him and threw her small clutch purse down on the table before picking up a spoon and scooping up a glob of ice cream. She shook her head at the spoon, though he doubted that it was the ice cream that was the problem, and then shoveled it into her mouth.

"So what's with the fancy duds?" Jim asked her, hoping that a bit of humor would perk her up a bit.

"I had to go to a party," she replied vaguely.

"Did the twelfth precinct win the lottery?" he inquired, giving her a smile. She didn't match it.

"It was a release party for the book."

No need to broach what book. She had complained to him last year about Richard Castle and how he had found her to be his muse for his next book. At first he had laughed, thinking that she had been pulling his leg. She had quickly assured him that she wasn't joking, which had only made him laugh harder. To think that Katie's favorite author had taken an interest in her was something that only happened on T.V.

Over the months she had stopped griping about the book and switched over to Castle. She complained about his arrogance, his meddling, his inability to follow orders, his annoying habit of being useful, the way he could be so thoughtful and irritating all at once, the list was a mile long and it got sillier the longer it got.

"So how was it?" Jim asked his daughter, "Did you meet any famous authors?"

The question was ignored like he knew it would be. He was only prying in just a little to let her open up and explain her problems.

"It's ridiculous," she began, "he wants to give up his own work to live off of someone else's fame."

"Are we talking about Castle?" It was a pointless question. Who else would leave Katie so ruffled?

"He's acting like it's no big deal," she continued as she scooped up some more ice cream, "he'll be giving up his true craft to carry on someone else's work."

"Sweetie, I'm in the dark here," Jim pointed out.

Katie sighed and put down her spoon. "Castle is abandoning Nikki Heat and is going to work on something else."

"What is he going to work on?" Jim inquired with curiosity.

She did air quotes as she said, "A certain British secret agent."

Jim's eyes flared open and his grey brows rose to his hairline. "Are you talking about James—?"

"Yes," she cut in, "I don't even know what the big deal is anyway. Those books and movies are entirely overrated."

Jim literally bit his lip to keep from laughing since his daughter had the entire _007_ collection on DVD.

"Nikki Heat was his creation, why would he want to give that up to work on some tired series?"

"Well he didn't exactly create Nikki Heat, she's based off of you," Jim argued and sipped his coffee.

"But he's a _mystery_ writer, not some spy novelist."

"I don't think spy is a genre."

She let out an inaudible grumble and picked up her spoon again. After two more bites of ice cream she was ready to rant once again. "You know what? I'm actually glad. This way I won't have him following me around anymore, invading my desk, visiting every candy store in the city in search for Czech candy that tastes like soap!" She punctuated her sentence by digging up another spoonful of ice cream.

Jim watched her with amusement for a moment, but then he remembered how Johanna had behaved when she had a problem she didn't want to admit to. Katie was so much like her mother; perhaps she had picked up some of the same habits. There was something deeper than just irritation that Castle was trading in Nikki Heat for a famous spy, something she didn't want to investigate.

"Then why are you so upset?" Jim probed gently, scooping up his own small bit of ice cream to sample.

"Because it's irritating," she replied matter-of-factly.

"Why?" he insisted on knowing.

"Because it's Castle."

Jim couldn't help but chuckle at that answer. It was one he had heard many times after the writer had entered his daughter's life. "True, but you seem more than just annoyed."

"Well Castle has a way of pushing all of my buttons until they break," she mumbled back and he detected a hint of hurt in her voice.

"Still, you seem angry about the whole deal."

"I am angry," she admitted, "I'm angry that I've been stuck with this cocky writer for months, practically having to babysit him since he has the mentality of a six year old, and now he's going to abandon the project? What was the point in starting it then? Why did I have to go through with this?"

She stirred up the melting ice cream in the dish with a furious motion of her spoon. "I can't believe that this is how I'm going to lose a partner," she muttered.

Jim's brows quirked at the word that just fell from her lips. "Partner?" he repeated, "I thought he was just a tagalong."

She seemed shocked by what had come out of her mouth as well. "He is," she replied, "It was just a slip of the tongue."

"A Freudian slip of the tongue," Jim contended.

"No, just a slip," she insisted, but she was looking down at the pool of melted ice cream and caramel.

"So that's the problem, you're upset because Castle won't be working with you anymore."

"I never said that," she argued.

"Katie, you don't have to, I can see it in your face," he said. She didn't reply, just stirred up the creamy mixture in the bowl with her spoon. Jim leaned forward and took her hand, "Sweetheart, can I tell you something?'

"Sure, Dad."

"Did you know that every day when I called you and asked you about your day, you would always tell me about the case you were currently working on?"

"I hadn't really thought about it," she admitted, "but I suppose I do."

"Well you would always give me a quick summary, no gory details and no anecdotes about it. Just a simple procedural run-down." Jim let out a little sigh. "It worried me a little, like you might be afraid to tell me about you work in case I broke down or something."

She shook her head. "Dad, I—."

"Let me finish," he chided her gently, "but in the last couple of months, every time we talk the first thing you say is 'You won't believe what Castle did today'."

"That I can believe," she replied, "since he's always getting into trouble."

Jim chuckled, "True enough, but every day now you give me a long, detailed story about what mess he managed to stir up this time. And always, _always_, you wind up laughing at the end of it."

"I do?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yes, and I'm grateful to him for that…and I think you are too."

She looked down at the table for a moment before finally nodding a little. "I suppose he does make the job more…fun."

"Yes, he does and I think you are sad that he may be leaving because you like having him around. He may tease you and drive you crazy, but he also adds something to the job you didn't have before: fun. You need that, Katie."

It took her several moments but she finally whispered, "I do." She pulled her hand away from his and let out a long, sad sigh. "But it doesn't matter. He's got 007 now."

"I think if you told him what you just told me, he'll stay," Jim suggested.

"I doubt it. It's a lucrative offer and with his mother and Alexis under his care, he'll take the best offer he can get."

"Maybe, but he definitely won't stay if you don't try to convince him to," he replied.

"We said some things at the party, Dad," Katie said, now with some guilt in her voice, "He was pretty angry."

"A lot can change in a day," Jim said, "The book's coming out tomorrow, I'm sure he'll be too busy to be upset over anything you said."

"Maybe," she admitted but she didn't sound hopefully. She looked over at the clock on the wall and read the time. "It's late, I should be going."

Jim nodded, hating to see that his words had achieved little effect. "I'll be first in line to buy _Heat Wave_ tomorrow," he promised.

She looked startled at his words and quickly said, "Dad, will you tear out page 105 when you get it?"

"Why?" he asked her with a quizzical look on his face.

"Just…because," she gave him the vague answer before leaving her booth. She walked over and kissed his cheek. "I'll call you tomorrow, Dad."

"Bye, Katie," he told her and watched her leave.

Jim sighed and swallowed the last bit of his coffee that had grown tepid with time. He left a wad of bills on the table and left the diner. He had given Katie his advice, but she had inherited stubbornness from both of her parents. It was doubtful that she would tell Castle her true feelings on his new book deal. Still he hoped that everything would be all right. Katie deserved to have some fun in her life and Castle seemed to be delivering that well.

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_The Next Night_

Jim was glad that he had preordered the book _Heat Wave_ because when he got to the bookstore, the line to get the book was nearly out the door. He had spent the day snatching in pages during work breaks and when he finally got home he was looking forward to reading more. Castle seemed to have captured Katie's essence well, though she wasn't an exact replica of her. Jim had smiled at the dedication, touched by the honor bestowed on his daughter.

Nikki Heat was in the middle of chasing after Rook and a suspect when Jim's phone rang. He marked his place in the book and answered, "Hello?"

"Dad, you aren't going to believe this," he heard his daughter say with an annoyed tone, "He's doing three books."

"Who is?" he asked.

"Castle! Can you believe it? Apparently Nikki Heat is a bestseller so now he's going to be doing three more books on her. Do you know what this means? I'm going to be stuck with him forever! Oh and do you know what he did today?"

Jim just smiled as he listened to his daughter prattle on about whatever mischief her writer tagalong had gotten into. He knew that in a few minutes he would be laughing with her about the fun her new partner was adding to her life.

_The End_

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A/N: So what did everybody think? Please review


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